The entire weekend technology news cycle revolved around the crisis at OpenAI with the company having asked CEO Sam Altman to step down. It didn't take time for Microsoft to step in and announce that Altman would lead their new AI team.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on social media platform X that Altman and former OpenAI President and Board Chair Greg Brockman, alongside other colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.

Tech giant Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has a close technology partnership with the company.

We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023

According to CNBC, Altman had been leading the company since 2019. OpenAI’s board announced late Friday that it was removing Altman and replacing him on an interim basis with technology chief Mira Murati. The post said that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”

This did not dissuade a group of OpenAI investors, who were pushing to bring Altman back as CEO over the weekend.

Late Sunday night, OpenAI said it was bringing on board former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to run the artificial intelligence company. Just hours after, Nadella announced that Altman and Brockman — who was removed from his role as chairman on Friday alongside Altman, and later quit the company altogether — would be absorbed in-house into the Microsoft team.